The preceding chapter outlined some of the basic and common characteristics and dispositions of our ‘political administrators’. We established some broad profiles of our whole population of top bureaucrats, without attempting to differentiate between different sectors of Canberra's federal state apparatus. With this material as a base we now approach a larger body of data with a different purpose and strategy.

The aim here is to look again at our top bureaucrats to see how their dispositions relate to their location in the structure. Were they all much the same and did they all see things in much the same way? Or are there patterned differences in their characteristics and viewpoints? Different departments within this Canberra state apparatus obviously interface with the larger social, economic and political environment in different ways. Since everyone must agree that a welfare agency and a department of trade face different clients and constituencies and have different functions, there is a need to see how these differences show up in the dispositions of our top bureaucrats.

In addressing these questions we attempt to map the structure of the central part of the Canberra state apparatus that falls within the scope of our enquiry as it was before the departmental amalgamations of Bastille Day, July 1987. This mapping is done from the inside out, in terms of the patterned differences and similarities among our SES officers in three different categories of departments, each of which interface with different sectors of the larger social environment.